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Thunderbird Club

Close your eyes and Mel's in the room playing through his 200 watt West all tube heads through 4 double 15" cabs!!!!! :laugh:

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Where's that blasted "block a person" button anyway.:roflmao:

I'd pay some doggone good money to be in that room!
 
Once in awhile, I'll see a demo wherein the the demo-er plays the same line with different settings; pick vs fingers; even(ugh!)slap'n'pop. And doesn't spend all the time in the upper end-10th fret and above. It's fine to play some up there, but I wanna hear the low end-where the guitars don't go(neener-neener). I'm "auditioning" the bass, not the bassist. JMNSHO.:smug:
Well said.

One of my complaints is someone will demo and amp, pedal, strings, but do it on a boutique bass that only 200 people have heard of and 1 might have seen in person. I still don't know what Poser Steel Round Flats sound like played on an XR-P95 Chimp bass. I know people like to show off their one of 50 made basses but it provides zero useful information.
 
I find it highly amusing-and somewhat confusing-that, as Thunderbirders, we strive for very different tones. For me, it's the playability of the 67's neck that I gravitate to most. The "normal(?)" TBird tone wouldn't fit in most of what I do.

While I liked most of GFR's songs, my least favorite part was Mel's tone-always sounded, to me, like he'd 'blowed' a speaker or two. It fit what they were doing, but, at least in part, bc that's what they did. His technique is terrific. No question there.

IMO(such as it is), we 'like' the bass line on a recording 'cos that's what they recorded, so "it must be right". I'd like to hear the outtakes of some songs to hear what was done in previous mixes. I've mentioned, ad nauseum, my dislike for droning root eighth notes, but if that's what was on the song being covered, that's what has to be played to be true to the piece. I'm sure that-and the fact I'm a Grumpy Olde Phart-probably explains why I prefer the more imaginative(melodic?)bass lines of songs from the 60's-80's.

Tweetchie zone.

On another note(Gb), the THUNDERBIRD Drive-In/Swap shop still exists as both.
I completely understand what you're saying. Mel's tone is nothing I would likely ever use, but I like it in some of their stuff. Most distortion I don't care for at all (Lemmy), realizing there is likely more of it than we notice in most recordings.

As for the droning 8th notes...so you don't like AC/DC. :smug: Fortunately I never had to play any years ago when they were the thing. Not that some of it doesn't sound good, I just didn't want to waste my immense skill playing //////////////// for most of a song.

(OK, the immense skill part was purely a literary flourish not tethered to reality.)
 
I completely understand what you're saying. Mel's tone is nothing I would likely ever use, but I like it in some of their stuff. Most distortion I don't care for at all (Lemmy), realizing there is likely more of it than we notice in most recordings.

As for the droning 8th notes...so you don't like AC/DC. :smug: Fortunately I never had to play any years ago when they were the thing. Not that some of it doesn't sound good, I just didn't want to waste my immense skill playing //////////////// for most of a song.

(OK, the immense skill part was purely a literary flourish not tethered to reality.)
If you want chugging 8th notes…

 
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I don't know enough about them, are the pickups in the 60's position?

According to the wiki sample, yes or very close. Though one is probably too small a sample to be sure to be sure.

But the neck pup on the one he played did look to be further back than recent Gibson's. But that's just a guess in my part.
 
I had that album as well and saw them about that time--maybe 82 or 83. Is that what he played? I don't remember much about details like that other than they rocked the place.
yep, I had only seen them in Guitar Player adverts… first one I saw on a stage…he went through two SVTs….remember Farner wore Camos and a bandana….Bellinger wore red paratrooper overalls and a black beret….they looked badazz and literally tore the place (Hollywood Sportatorium) to pieces….
 
Well said.

One of my complaints is someone will demo and amp, pedal, strings, but do it on a boutique bass that only 200 people have heard of and 1 might have seen in person. I still don't know what Poser Steel Round Flats sound like played on an XR-P95 Chimp bass. I know people like to show off their one of 50 made basses but it provides zero useful information.
You haven't lived until you have played an XR-P95 Chimp... It plays like butter, hangs like cookie dough, and the balance is like a medium rare steak. And the sound is gooey when you want and chewy when you want that. And the banana setting is as moist as a Duncan Hines yellow cake.
 
ditto, "The Sheltering Sky" sends me to another dimension….I vote for out next GTG in Tangier….:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'm cool with this, can we ship our basses and amps there in a temperature controlled container ahead of time?
 
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SushiBox FX has some great, compact tube pedals at decent prices. Careful though, they are addictive, I'm up to 3 (a Finally DI, an Underground Accelerator, and a Slampegg Bee), 2 for my gigboard and one for home. He's a great guy and stands behind his products. There is a SushiBox thread here on TalkBass.

I second the SushiBox recommendation. I recently received the Dr Wattson pedal, which is based on the Hiwatt DR103. I really like it so far but I haven't had a chance to use it as much as I would like. Life has been a bit hectic lately.
 
Interesting study. I'm confident it doesn't pertain to me.
"Study suggests posting on social media makes users overconfident"
Sharing articles on social media makes people think they know more about the articles' topics than they actually do, according to a new study from the University of Texas at Austin.

I liked this line: "This miscalibrated sense of knowledge can be hard to correct,"

What a shocker. Who would have ever thought that would happen. Who knew?
Same here.
 
This is all I use, great tube distortion out of a 12AX7, doubles as a direct box.

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I got to listen and this really sounded great. A very sweet distortion that really wouldn't stand out as being distorted but add some texture. (Of course he's playing a bass hardly anyone has!) This is a very usable sound and not the typical buzzsaw most distortions produce. Reminds me of the Ashdown version of bass pre. Very pricey if you can find one.
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